“Let’s not do this in isolation” says police chief
Police Operational Support officers conducting a search of Arnos Park near Brislington, Friday 23 May 2025, where they are looking for knives in undergrowth. (Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach PLC)
The first signs of Bristol turning the tide in the campaign against knife crime are beginning to emerge – and police chiefs say it has only been possible with the support and hard work of communities across the city.
After what one police chief described as a ‘really traumatic and concerning time’ for communities in Bristol, there is now a ‘tangible change in the last six months’, with reductions in the numbers of young people caught carrying knives, and crimes involving knives.
Chief Inspector Mike Vass, from Avon and Somerset police, told Bristol Live that this has only been possible because of the hard work over a long period of time from groups, campaigners and community leaders across the city, working with the police and targeting efforts to focus on young people with education and support.
Chief Insp Vass said there was still a long way to go, because the statistics showing numbers of young people carrying knives and involved in knife crime had been rising steadily over the past ten years before the latest figures, but he said the new approach to work with communities was beginning to show the first signs of working.
“The years 2023 into 2024 was a really really traumatic and concerning time for the communities,” he said. “We saw a significant loss of lives, specifically in our children and young people, and street-based violence like we’ve never seen before – a real troubling moment,” he added.
“Since then all of those partnerships and Avon and Somerset police have worked tirelessly to look at how we can tackle this issue differently and more collaboratively to reduce it, and I am happy to say that in the last six months we are starting to see that effort make a tangible change.
“In the last six months, we’ve seen a 30 per cent reduction in possession offences in under 18 year olds, and we’ve also seen reductions of over 30 per cent in robbery offences, theft offences involving a knife, so we are seeing some encouraging data from all of that work,” he added.
“But the problem is extremely complex and hasn’t gone away. It’s about how we continue that effort, how we continue that focus. For me, it’s absolutely about that collaborative effort and increasing opportunities for communities to talk to us, give us information, intelligence, but more importantly work with us. Let’s not do this in isolation,” he added.
Chief Inspector Mike Vass(Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach PLC)
Chief Insp Vass was speaking at a police operation at a park in South Bristol, that involved officers combing the park’s undergrowth for knives and weapons that are hidden by those that carry them, to retrieve later or when needed.
The Operation Sceptre event happens regularly at parks around Bristol, and is coupled with neighbourhood police officers out in the community to talk to people about knife crime. Officers scoured Arnos Park, between Totterdown and Brislington, for most of Friday (May 23), looking for the kind of weapons that are being regularly used by young people in the city.
Any weapons found are confiscated and, after they have been cleared for destruction, are melted down and the scrap metal value received helps to fund community initiatives – from the city-wide Bleed Kit campaign, to educational early intervention activities that support Year 6 and Year 7 pupils across the city, to talk about carrying knives and weapons.
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Chief Insp Vass said the challenges facing the police, and the city as a whole, have come from a disturbing shift from knife crime and knife possession being something that was largely a crime perpetrated by young men in their 20s, to now being something affecting teenagers.
“We’ve seen these reductions in the last six months but we’ve seen increases every single year for the last decade,” said Chief Insp Vass. “Not only that, but we’ve seen a change in offending types. So ten years ago, when you looked at knife crime, the majority of the focus was adult-based offending.
“But we’ve seen a shift over time. A lot of that has been influenced by the online space such as social media and online sale of weapons, which is really, really difficult to regulate and control nationally.
Police Operational Support officers conducting a search of Arnos Park near Brislington, Friday 23 May 2025, where they are looking for knives in undergrowth. (Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach PLC)
“Unfortunately what that’s meant is that people have had access to items that, just by their mere design and their size, can cause such a catastrophic bleed if they ever get used.
“It is really challenging. We’ve not faced those challenges ten years ago, so it’s the focus for us in policing, and for us as a society. This is not an issue that’s gone away,” he added.